


A Puzzle We Fixed

by orphan_account



Category: The Walking Dead
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Multi, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-05-31 05:31:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6457810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ron and Carl need to fix things for their own sanity but can they fix things back to the way they were?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Blood

They had taken to calling the mansion they found the big house. Things were always changing for them lately, after the downfall of Alexandria they all left, they fled and it was something like the prison again. Carl was going to have more nightmares and more issues but he'd get over it, he always did. They had stumbled upon the big house like a trap set for rabbits, except this was no trap, this could be their only savior. There wasn't a lot of them left. Beth, Judith, Rick, Daryl, Michonne, Ron, Enid, Carl, Aaron, Eric, Maggie, Glenn, Rosita, Tara, Sasha and Abraham were the only people left from Alexandria and even though there were sixteen of them, sixteen felt like five. 

 

There was no just walking into the big house either. The surrounding area was clear but on the inside there looked like there were walkers all over the place, there was no getting in there after that and right now Rick was trying to decide if they could afford to put up a fight tonight. 

 

Carl sat on the ground, ten yards from the house, his gun at the ready and watching out for walkers. He was looking at the sky for smoke, trying to find out where Alexandria was but there wasn't anything, so either the place was intact or no fire caught. If there wasn't a fire than that meant they could head back, look for survivors or supplies. But they couldn't live there anymore, not with Negan looking for them, not with the threat of his people coming for them. Alexandria was the prison now. He stole a look at Ron who was with Enid back at the house, the boy looked like hell. Not too long ago, Rick had cut off his mothers arm and fed her to the walkers and he had also watched his brother be eaten by them too. Ron hadn't talked to anyone for the longest after that happened. But now he just looked like he had been through a war. 

 

"Welcome to my world." Carl whispered to himself. 

 

He had been waiting for the day that Ron would know what Carl had gone through, waiting for him to finally realize that life is not safe anymore, that you're never really safe and that's why there are people like Rick, people like Carl. Because they don't believe in the safe bullshit. It hadn't been that long ago when Ron tried to kill Rick, Carl had tackled Ron to the ground before he could pull the trigger but the bullet still managed to get the best out of Carl's eye. That whole side of Carl's face was burned but bandaged so no one could see it, it was a miracle that Carl was still alive and that Ron was too. 

 

"Carl?" Enid said, approaching Carl softly. 

 

"Yeah?" He glanced over his shoulder, pretending that he had been watching out for walkers this whole time instead of watching the two of them. 

 

"You okay?" 

 

Carl got angry then, this whole time she had been coddling Ron, making sure that he was fine and he never even replied, never even nodded in reply- he gave her nothing and she had been giving him her all- while all the while Carl was helping her, saving her, fighting for her. "Why the hell do you care? Huh? Why don't you just go help Ron Ron come back to the real world like you've been trying to do for weeks Enid. He's a vegetable now. All he does is eat, sleep, and walk. He doesn't talk, he doesn't help. So tell me, why are you still trying with him?" Carl watched as her face fell, she had had a fake smile plastered to her face but now that he had said this her whole face fell and her eyes went dark.

 

"Because Carl, he's still a human. All you do is Kill now, you don't help you just kill the walkers cause you want to, cause you're mad. Let me tell you if the world wasn't the way it was-"

 

"Well the world is the way it is!" Carl scoffed. "I lost my eye, Ron lost his mind, and you've obviously lost yours if you're just gonna follow him around and protect him with every step. I should have killed him." Carl shook his head. 

 

"You couldn't kill me Carl." A familiar voice said. Carl turned to see Ron just a few feet behind Enid. Carl's eye widened and he gulped whatever liquid he had in his mouth. That was the first time he heard Ron talk in weeks. "You know you couldn't." And then he was stalking back off towards the house, he plopped himself down on the grass and that was Ron's way of coming back to sanity for a few seconds. 

 

+++

Ron never talked because he couldn't find the words to say, he had after all tried to kill Rick but maned Carl. How do you talk to a tight net family when you tried to kill their leader? You don't, so that's why Ron kept his mouth shut. There was nothing he could say and nothing he could do but stay quiet and help out when needed. But no one needed him, no one came to him so he just stayed quiet. Enid had tried to help him but she didn't understand, she wasn't there that night that the walkers came in and they were attacked, she didn't understand what Ron was feeling when he shot the gun. He wasn't feeling anything. There was just this blank red space and he just wanted to end Rick Grimes like the way that he had ended his family.

 

Enid was becoming annoying though, she kept him alive when all Ron really wanted to do was die. He continued to get looks from the others that read, 'make a sudden move and I'll kill you', that's why he didn't bother with holding or carrying a gun because even though Ron wanted to die, he didn't want to die for trying to defend himself against the un-dead and be mistaken for trying to kill one of the living.

 

He played with the grass that he sat on, twirling the blades in his hand and ripping it out when he felt like it. Ron let out a sigh and looked at the people in Rick's group, they were all bloodied, all sad and all tired. Most of the blood was from the walkers though, only a few of them had wounds. He looked at the window of the mansion where they could see the walkers inside and the walkers were starting to notice him. Every time Ron say a walker he got that feeling of nothing and just wanted to kill, his breathing got heavy and his forehead gathered sweat. 

 

"You okay?" A blonde girl named Beth asked him. 

 

She was Maggie's sister, one of the people that Rick's group that threw him smiles every now and then and asked if he was okay. Ron nodded. This surprised Beth, she hadn't seen the boy give any type of reply to anyone for a long time. "We're gonna get inside soon, just you wait." She ruffled his hair with a smile. 

 

"Beth!" Daryl called to her. She turned around quickly. "Get over here." She turned and smiled at Ron and then pranced off towards Daryl. He watched as he scolded her and pointed his finger at Ron, he was probably telling her about how much of a traitor Ron was and how she shouldn't be talking to him. Beth was yelling back at him and making Daryl look guilty for something that he had said. Leave it to the youngest Greene girl to make Daryl feel bad about himself when he needed too. She caressed the side of his face and placed a chaste kiss on his lips, Daryl held her hand on the side of his face for a moment and then let her go about her business again.

 

Daryl and Beth were his favorite people to watch- not in that weird way though even though he had walked in on them once by accident. He just liked seeing how they were with each other, how she was so small and dainty and he was so large and burly. You'd never think that they would go together at first glance but if you watched them, you'd know they were perfect together. 

 

"You okay?" Enid asked, finally done yelling with Carl. 

 

Ron nodded again and watched as Enid smiled. "At least you're making no-verbal communication. Now we just gotta get you to smile." Enid joked.

 

Enid knew that there was a war going on in Ron's head, she knew what it was like not being able to talk, not wanting to talk to anyone. But he'd have to come around sometime wouldn't he? After all he was the one that had coaxed her into talking to him. The memory of them killed her, she had been so quick to leave him, so quick to make something with Carl that she didn't even have time to explain to Ron why. Carl knew what it was like out there, knew what she had been feeling but now Ron knew it all, what it was like to lose a mother and a father. At least Carl still had Rick. They were orphans in this world. 

 

"You want something to eat?" Enid asked Ron. He nodded again, she smiled even more. Enid took her backpack off her back and began rummaging through it, trying to find the granola bars she packed. "You know, Carl is just mad about the whole eye thing, he'll get over it soon. He has to understand-"

 

"He doesn't have to understand anything!" Ron scoffed and shook his head. 

 

Enid froze and looked at him. "What do you mean?" 

 

"I tried to kill his dad. I hurt him. He doesn't have to understand or forgive me and none of these people have to ever like me. I'm just here Enid. Why don't you realize that?" He looked at her with pained eyes and she stared back at him with sympathy. 

 

"I like you, I understand." She said honestly. 

 

Ron rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you like me a lot, that's why you left me for Carl on the first day he got here." Ron stood up sharply and stalked off towards Rick. Everyone's eyes on him as he did so. 

 

"Rick, we need to take them out, if we keep waiting out here the walkers are gonna come and we're gonna be like everybody else." Ron said, Rick stared at the boy in surprise, all he knew about Ron was that he wasn't talking but here he was telling Rick what to do.

 

"Ron, I don't think we can take the risk." Rick said after realizing that he should reply to the boy. 

 

"I know you've been in situations like this before, why can't you handle it like those times?" Ron practically whined. Selfishly he wanted to get in the house to have some solitude, to get away from the eyes of the people around him. 

 

"He's got a point Rick. Who knows how many walkers were following us. Once we take the ones inside out we'll be fine." Glenn added. 

 

"The door opens in, not out. We won't be in control in this situation." Rick explained. 

 

"We've got enough people out here to take care of that Rick. We can do this." Abraham added. 

 

"Fine." Rick rubbed his face hard. "Everyone come in." right on call everyone circled around Rick, paying close attention to every word. "I'm gonna open that door, we're not gonna have any control, we don't know how many are in there and I'm pretty sure that we're extremely low on ammo. But we need to take this place, for the time being this is the only place that is close enough but far enough away from Alexandria. Are we ready?" He asked, eyeing all of them. 

 

Something hit Ron's arm, he looked and saw Carl holding a gun out for him to take. Ron looked at it and shook his head. The gun hit his arm again. "Fuck it." Ron took the gun, cocked it and aimed it. 

 

"Atta boy." Abraham said, patting Ron sharply on his shoulder. Ron breathed out deep, this was his first time holding a gun since that night. 

 

Carl watched as Ron's eyes locked on the door, Ron didn't know it but Carl was still behind him, waiting for him to slip up. Rick stared at the door as he approached it, stepping quietly up each step. He grabbed a hold of the door handle, turning it slowly to see if it was unlocked, it was. "NOW!" Rick yelled as he flung the door open. 

 

Walkers began to pile out. Carl shot while keeping his eye on Ron, who had yet to fire a bullet. "Come on Ron!" Carl yelled, antagonizing the boy. "Don't be a pussy shot it!" 

 

Something inside Ron snapped and he started firing off, he went out of the group, going up closer to the walkers, killing them without even thinking. Without worrying about the others who were firing their guns and without worrying about dying. Finally all the gun did was click. Ron's red rage was gone and he could see the eight walkers coming for him now, Ron was the closest one in grip. Just as his thought it was going to be over, just as the walker who's side of the neck was missing was about to bite him. Rick hit it in the head with the bottom of his gun, busting through the rotting skull and hitting the brain. 

 

Ron stood there. Breathing heavily and watching as Rick took out the rest with ease. He looked to the ground and saw the walkers that he had killed on his own, he looked at his hands and saw the blood splatters and he looked in the reflection of the window to see his face caked in blood. He fainted.


	2. Maybe I missed you

Carl couldn't say he wasn't impressed with Ron, he had taken his opportunity to show them all that he still worked that he did in fact still have motor skills. But then he had to go and faint. Enid and Beth ran up to him, checking if he had been bitten or anything, he was fine, just saw too much blood. Carl approached Ron's collapsed body with his water bottle out, he tipped it over causing the water to fall on Ron's face. Ron sputtered awake, gasping for air and shaking his head. "Water wasted." Carl mumbled. 

 

"Ron are you okay?" Enid asked frantically, she had been shocked by the way Ron took out the walkers like it was nothing. It had scared her when he fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. 

 

"Yes he's fine." Carl snorted. "He saw too much blood." 

 

"Yeah no thanks to you!" Enid shouted, standing and pushing Carl away from Ron. "Carl you need to lay off him! He made one mistake and you just won't let him forget it!"

 

"It was a mistake that cost me my eye!" Carl yelled, all eyes were on them now. 

 

"Yeah and you're dad cost him his dad, his mom and probably his brother. If Rick killed my mom and dad, I'd want to kill him too. You all need to realize that!" Enid said addressing everyone now. "Ron isn't like that anymore but you all keep pushing him back to it! He didn't want to lose his mom, he didn't want to lose his dad or his brother. You brought that on him Rick, it wasn't all your fault but you put on the final touches. Think about anyone who has ever killed any of your people, you wanted to kill them and you probably did. So stop! He didn't want any of this!" Enid breathed heavily and looked around the group, looked at Ron and then realized that she might have over stepped her boundaries. 

 

"We'll address this later, right now we need to check the rooms or walkers." Rick said, "This is a big house I want us in pairs. Carl and Ron, you two are together, I want you two to work this out. We need to stop this fighting. Beth you're with Enid. Michonne and I, Abraham and Sasha, Rosita and Tara, Daryl and Aaron, Maggie you stay here with Judith and Glenn and Eric. Be safe make sure to knock so you know what's inside. After every gunshot I hear I wanna hear a clear with it. Okay?"

 

Carl looked at Ron who sat pitifully on the ground. "Get up." Carl spat, Ron eyed him as he stood. He was tired of backing down. "Here take my knife, you're out of bullets." Carl held his knife out to him , Ron took it, making sure that they never touched. 

 

Ron was back to being a mute, he didn't want to upset anyone any further than what Enid might have. He didn't know how much Enid really understand about him but when she said that it kind of all went through his head that she knew, she always knew. Ron kind of felt like a dick now, for ignoring her and taking her for granted. Maybe tomorrow be might talk to her, he might.

 

"Ron?" Carl called his name. "Ron?" Finally Ron blinked hard and realized that Carl was talking to him. Carl had been trying to get Ron's attention for about two minutes now. They were about to go int heir first room and he wanted Ron ready. 

 

Ron nodded. "I'm gonna knock okay?" Carl said to which Ron only gave a quick nod. 

 

Carl knocked on the door two times, waiting for the noises of walkers to be heard. When they didn't here anything for about a minute Carl opened the door and stood back, waiting for walkers to come charging at him. But there was nothing. He shined his light in the room. There was a large bed, two dressers and a large mirror in the room along with two other doors inside. "C'mon." Carl nodded and Ron followed him in. 

 

Carl checked under the bed while Ron knocked on one of the doors. When nothing was to be heard, Ron opened the door and shined his flash light in. A closet full of women's clothes. "Leave that open, the girls have been wanting new clothes." Carl smiled. 

 

This went on for about another thirty minutes of checking rooms and seeing what supplies they had. Only two people had shot bullets and the rest of the rooms were clear. The last room that they checked obviously belonged to a boy, it was a faded blue, with pictures of race cars and star wars posters, the bed had a dark blue comforter and the closet was filled with toys. Carl sighed. "I remember when I used to have a room like this." 

 

Ron just nodded, pissing Carl off. "You gotta talk to me man. I know I've been a dick but that's because you shot me in the eye. I don't want us to hate each other, I don't want to be like this. I want us to be friends, or at least on talking terms." Carl pleaded. 

 

Ron scoffed and shook his head. "In case you haven't noticed but I haven't been talking to anyone lately. Not even Enid." 

 

"I don't see why you don't talk to her, she's done nothing but help you." Carl pointed out.

 

"She does it out of sympathy, she feels bad for me." Ron shrugged. "I don't want sympathy I just want to be normal." He admitted. 

 

"No one is ever going to be normal again Ron." Carl said with a sigh. "It's late, we'll talk about this more in the morning, we need sleep." 

+++

Ron had nightmares while he slept, dreams of his mother coming back as a walker and eating him, he would wake up gasping for air, managing to wake a few of the people sleeping by him too. Rick insisted that they all sleep together downstairs for safety. Ron just wanted his own room now, he was tired of watching people, tired of listening to others conversation.

 

The morning sun woke all of them but Carl had barely gotten any sleep last night, Ron was waking up every twenty minutes it seemed and every time Carl closed his eyes he started to panic. He didn't like being in strange places, even though Judith was wrapped up in his arms and his father and Michonne were in sleeping bags right next to him, he was still uneasy. Judith was the first one to wake them up, and now that it was morning they could see the condition that the house was really in. 

 

There were a couple of blood splatters here and there, the house stunk but they were so used to the smell by now that it didn't bother them as much as what it used to. there were two stories to they house, that they already knew. Carl gave Judith some canned pineapple that he had in his backpack and began counting the rooms. Downstairs there were Three, upstairs there were five. There were two hall way bathrooms, one upstairs and one downstairs and the rest of the rooms had their own bathrooms. If they bunked up they could all share a room. 

 

Carl didn't even know if they were going to be staying here though, he liked it here though, they could build walls like they did in Alexandria, maybe put up two so that they could have a back up. Maybe even put up an extra fence. Carl knew that no place was permanent no matter how much work you put into it but you still had to try.

 

They all had sat at the dinning room once everyone was awake. They were eating what they had in their backpacks for breakfast and bottles of water that they found stored in the kitchen. "What are we gonna do now?" Beth asked, they were all thinking it but Beth just so happened to be the first person to say anything. 

 

"I can't keep moving Rick." Maggie said suddenly. "I'm gonna have this baby in two months, I can't just move anymore, you know how it was with Lori."

 

"Why don't we just stay here?" Carl suggested. "It's safe, hidden by the woods, we took out most of Negan's people, we can build up walls. We can make this place work for the time being." 

 

"Carl-"

"Rick, he's right." Glenn sighed. "This place is big enough for all of us right now, we can try to get some generators or even hook the place up to solar energy. Alexandria isn't that far away we can go and get the rest of the supplies." 

 

"I don't like it, it isn't safe enough." 

 

"It's gotta be, we gotta make it." Michonne said finally. Rick looked at Michonne, really looked at her and then rubbed his face. 

 

"Fine, we stay here this isn't permanent though, this is just until Maggie has the baby and then another month. We need to get some place bigger and better." Rick sighed. "We leave at noon to get supplies from Alexandria, if we see Negan's people there we don't come back here, we head out and in opposite directions and then we stay there til night fall. We don't need them finding this place." 

 

"They're Eight bedrooms, with the sixteen of us we should be good. Me and Maggie will double up. Daryl and Beth, Rick, Michonne and Judith, Sasha and Abraham, Tara and Rosita, Aaron and Eric, Enid gets her own and then Ron and Carl." Glenn gulped on the last part, not too sure if that was a good idea or not.

 

"Carl can share a room with us." Rick said shaking his head. 

 

"No thanks dad, Ron doesn't have the death wish out for me remember? Besides I can handle myself. We talked things out last night." Carl lied. He really did not want to share a cramped room with Michonne Judith and his dad. 

 

Rick sighed and nodded. "Let's start cleaning this place up." 

+++

Ron was a little nervous when Carl said that he would share a room with him, Ron would rather share a room with Enid if he was being honest but just as long as Carl wasn't a total douche to him he was fine with it. They took the room that Carl said his old one used to look like, the only bad thing was that all of the rooms only had one bed, once the boys realized this they exchanged a glance. "The bed is big enough, we won't even touch." Carl shrugged. He wouldn't mind sharing a bed with Ron so long as he kept his distance. 

 

"Alright." Ron said. 

 

"At least you're talking now, we won't get anywhere if you don't talk. Do my a favor and start clearing out some drawers, we need to start clearing space for your stuff." 

 

"You didn't even try to talk to me when I wasn't talking." Ron scoffed as he opened the drawer and began throwing little boy clothes out. 

 

"That's cause you weren't talking to anybody." Carl chuckled. "Do you see my point- plus you kind of shot my eye out so I held a grudge against you." 

 

"Yeah well. I was aiming for your dad not you." Ron pointed out. 

 

"Glad you missed." Carl sighed. He wasn't yet at the point where he could joke about that. He would admit that he missed his conversations with Ron, missed the way they were before everything with Enid happened. "Ron, I missed you." Carl admits, turning his head to look at the boy. 

 

Ron looked at Carl in disbelief. "Yeah?" He asked with a small smile. "I missed you too."


	3. Normal Teenagers

Things went by slowly for the rest of the day, no one was ready to go over to Alexandria yet so they made plans to go tomorrow, after everyone was well rested and fit to be out again. They needed ammo and food, more clothes, some water. They needed a lot. Hopefully Alexandria wasn't too ransacked, they were going to take everything that they could find, if Negan still wasn't there and if the place was all clear. All of the rooms were set up and everyone brought clothes that they found upstairs, down for everyone to get a look at and see what fit.

 

Everyone was able to find at least two items of clothing, they needed a new set by now. "How are you?" Enid asked as she and Ron was going through the clothes. 

 

"Are you always gonna ask me how I am every time you talk to me?" Ron said, Enid looked up at him expecting to see a ark face but instead he was smirking playfully. 

 

She smiled. "See, we got you smiling now." She looked over Ron once more, making sure that he looked fine, besides his pale skin and the bags under his eyes he looked fine. "I just wanna make sure you're okay." Enid said honestly. She still hadn't forgiven herself for leaving Ron in his time of need.

 

"Well you should be asking Carl if he's okay." Ron said a little pointedly. 

 

"What do you mean by that?" She asked. 

 

"I mean you were with him Enid, you left me for him. And now you're doing to him what you did to me." Ron pointed out seriously, looking at her with kind eyes hoping that she wouldn't take his words hard. 

 

Enid bit her lip. He was right, she was hurting Carl now. "I just don't know what to do anymore."

 

"Just do what you want to Enid, I'm fine now and honestly, don't take this the wrong way but I'm over you." He watched Enid's face fall and then pick up into a smile as she punched his arm. "I'm over everyone honestly." He said with a sigh. Enid gave him a questioning look. "I don't mean to sound dark and dreary but everyone's gonna die anyway and I want to save people pain when I go, I don't need you crying over me every day because I'm gone, I don't need someone going insane because i died and they were so close to me." Ron shrugged and sighed. "I lost my mind for a while and I don't wanna lose it again. I wanna be normal but-"

 

"But you can't." Carl interrupted. He had been watching them talk for a while now, watching and listening to them as they went through the clothes. 

 

"Exactly." Ron nodded. 

 

"There are still ways to be normal." Enid said sighing loudly. 

 

"How?" The boys said in unison. 

 

"Like this, going through clothes, talking about your feelings, kissing, being around other people." 

 

Carl scoffed. "I haven't kissed anyone in a while." Carl in fact had never kissed anyone, he and Enid came close to kissing several times but it never happened. 

 

"My last kiss was with you and that was a year a half ago." Ron pointed out. He and Enid used to have very heavy make out sessions, with grinding and groping but that all stopped once Carl got there.

 

"You guys know what I mean." 

 

"We don't have parties anymore, I never even got to have a teenage party, complete with beer and spin the bottle." Carl laughed, throwing looks at the two of them. 

 

"Yeah well me either." Ron added. 

 

"Well then, tonight." Enid nodded her head. "Let's have our own little party in the attic tonight." 

 

"We won't be able to get that passed the adults." Ron shook his head. If the others heard them in the attic they'd get worried and think walkers were up there and then they'd all be in trouble. 

 

"Carl can ask his dad. You can talk him into it right?" Enid looked at Carl almost pleadingly. 

 

"Fine." Carl sighed. His father would say yes to him, he knew he would but that didn't mean he liked asking him. It was something so stupid to ask for. "I can ask." 

 

Enid smiled brightly and Ron became very nervous. "Thank you Carl." She placed a kiss on his cheek and then one on Ron's. "I'm gonna look around a little bit more, try to find some booze that the others didn't already scoop up." 

 

"I don't like this." Ron stared at the pile of clothes on the table, an uneasy feeling creeping up on him. 

 

"You'll be fine." Carl said with a laugh and placed a hand on Ron's shoulder. 

 

Ron looked at Carl, it was the first time they had touched in a while and Ron did like it, it confused him. The feeling of Carl touching him made his stomach turn but his head hurt all at the same time. He shook Carl's hand off. "Don't do that." And then he walked away. Leaving Carl to stare at him as he left him there. 

 

+++

 

"Hey dad." Carl approached Rick who was watching the tree line. "Can I talk to you for a second." He asked nervously. 

 

"Sure son, what is it?" Rick asked, taking his eyes off the tree line and looking at his son who had grown so much over the years. 

 

"Me, Enid and Ron were wondering if we could have kind of a party tonight, ya know? Like teenagers do? It'll be up in the attic and we won't bother anyone. Plus, we kind of need the time to become friends again." Carl tried to sound as persuasive as possible. He didn't even really want to go to this party but if it gave him the chance to be alone with Ron and Enid to set things right, he would go for it.

 

Rick looked at him and squinted his eyes in the way that he did when he was thinking. "I guess, as long as you stay quiet, we don't need the others complainin' about you all makin' noise while they're tryin' to sleep." Rick nodded and then sighed. "I just want things to be right again."

 

"I know dad, and they will be, we just gotta keep tryin'." 

+++

Enid decided that the party would be held after the sun set, that way it could have the real party atmosphere. She found a whole bunch of candles in one of the kitchen drawers so when the boys came up the place was lit up bright enough for them to be able to see every inch of the of the attic. "It's not much." Enid sighed. "But I found some booze and stole an empty bottle from Abraham's room, spin the bottle." She smirked. 

 

"No thanks." Ron shook his head and waved his hands out in front of him. 

 

"Come on, don't be a baby, it'll be fun." Carl encouraged him, it wasn't like Enid was going to make the two of them kiss or anything. 

 

"Maybe, if I'm up for it." Ron's stomach tied itself in knots again, why was Carl urging him to play a kissing a game with him? 

 

It didn't take long before the three of them were sitting in a circle and passing around the old wine that Enid had found. Ron had tasted the stuff before, his father was a drinker so there was always some around for him to take. He never really liked the stuff but it made him feel numb so he'd drink it when he got too sad or started feeling too much. 

 

"We all lost our moms." Enid said randomly. "So we all got that in common." 

 

"Yeah well mine wouldn't be gone if it wasn't for Rick." Ron scoffed into the wine bottle and took a large sip. 

 

Carl shot Ron a look. "I thought we weren't gonna talk about stuff like that tonight?" Carl said as he snatched the bottle from Ron, taking an even larger gulp and then forcing it into Enid's hands. 

 

"Sorry, it's just something." Enid said, her cheeks burning as she felt their disappointment. 

 

"It's whatever. Let's not talk about parents or anything like that." Ron commented, staring down at the wooden floor beneath him. He wondered who's room he was sitting on top of, what they were doing beneath him and if they were okay. "If you could be with any of the adults here, who would you be with?" Ron asked, he did it mostly for the change of conversation, anything to get his mind off of his dead family. 

 

"Not Glenn." Enid said. 

 

"Why?" Carl half smiled. 

 

"Because he wants to hold on to tight, that day when the wolves broke into Alexandria and I left, he was the one that found me, he brought me back, even though I didn't want to." Enid remembered that day vividly, remembered how he didn't want to let her go back out there on her own. "I'd be with Abraham. He understands." She said even though she didn't find Abraham very attractive. 

 

"I think I'd be with Michonne." Carl said, getting looks from Ron and Enid. 

 

"Isn't she like your mom now?" Ron chuckled. 

 

"Yeah well, I had this childhood crush on her, well her and Beth but Beth is soft still." 

 

"I'd be with Beth." Ron nodded. "Have you guys ever seen the way that she and Daryl look at each other? It's like they're eating each other up. Daryl never takes his eyes off her when she's around."

 

"That's cause the last time he did that she was kidnapped, almost killed too but we found her." Carl had never noticed Beth and Daryl, sure he noticed them in the beginning but as he got used to seeing the two of them together he stopped paying attention to them. 

 

"I like Sasha and Abraham. There's just somethin' about them." Enid nodded. She understood what Ron was talking about, how the others look at each other and all. 

 

"Do you guys ever think that we'll find someone like that? Someone we get to share everything with and look at?" Carl asked, looking at both of them slowly. 

 

"Maybe." Enid sighed and took a gulp of the wine. "Who knows. Right now I'm the only girl for Both of you and I'm not into threesomes." She joked. 

 

"Yeah? Well me either." Ron laughed. 

 

"Fine and if that means Carl doesn't care either than we can play spin the bottle and not have reservations about all of it." Enid smiled smugly and placed the empty wine bottle in the middle of them. "I'll go first." 

 

Enid's heart began to race as she spun the bottle, she watched as it spun effortlessly and then settled on Carl. Carl felt his cheeks get hot and his stomach twist just a bit. His first kiss. "What kind of kiss does it have to be?" Carl asked nervously. 

 

"Since it's the first round we'll start off with pecks and then we'll just get deeper into it." Enid swallowed. 

 

"Okay..." Carl licked his lips and nodded his head. He leaned in as Enid was and closed his eyes before their lips touched. She had soft and plump lips, Carl's kiss was wetter than hers but it was still an okay kiss. 

 

Carl pulled away and sat back on his butt. "That wasn't so bad." Carl shrugged. 

 

Enid scoffed. "Well thanks." '

 

"Sorry. I didn't mean it like that." 

 

"You're fine." Enid smiled. "Just spin the bottle." 

 

Carl spun the bottle and then it came into his mind that he might have to kiss Ron, he had never kissed a boy before, his very first kiss had been because of this game just now. And damn it to hell it landed on himself. "Spin again." Enid instructed. So he did, his heart racing even faster this time. And then it landed on Ron. Enid smiled hard. "I've never seen two boys kiss before." 

 

"We actually have to kiss?" Carl gulped.

 

"I actually had to kiss you- yes you have to!" Enid whined. 

 

"Let's just do it, how bad could it be?" Ron said in spite of himself. He had to admit that he always wondered what Carl's lips felt like. 

 

Carl sighed and then leaned in placing a quick kiss on Ron's lips. "Ya happy?" Carl said to Enid, rolling his eyes but his lips were burning and his heart was racing. Why was he feeling this way?

 

"Maybe." Enid laughed, sticking her tongue out at him. "Now it's your turn Ron." 

 

"I don't know if I-"

 

"Nope you gotta play too." Carl said spinning the bottle for Ron, there was no way that he was backing out of this now. 

 

Ron watched the bottle spin and when it landed on Enid he couldn't help but frown. "Wow, you looked happier about kissing Carl." Enid said pointedly but leaning in and stealing the kiss quickly enough. It bothered her slightly at how easy it was to kiss him, about how familiar his lips felt. 

 

"Sorry." he forced a chuckle. 

 

"Back to me now. Now we gotta use tongue and no backing out for at least ten seconds." 

 

"Yeah I think I am going to go to bed." Ron stood quickly and made his way to the attic door. "I'm tired and I think the whine is making me sick, the thought of kissing Carl again, makes me wanna puke." Ron forced a smile to show that he was joking. 

 

"Yeah, thanks for the party Enid." Carl smiled at her and followed after Ron. "We gotta do a lot tomorrow so maybe we can do this again some other time?" 

 

"It was a bad idea wasn't it?" Enid pouted, she wasn't really hurt by the boys words but she still felt like her efforts were in vain now. 

 

"No, it was a good Idea, we're just not normal teenagers now." Carl shrugged.


	4. Enough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter is so short guyss!!!

Carl didn't realize how odd it would be laying in Bed next to Ron, both boys were laying on the very edge of either side of the bed, trying their best not to touch each other. But Carl could still feel Ron's warmth, could still hear his breathing and it was weird for Carl. His lips still hot form the kiss, he brushed his thumb against his bottom lip to rid the feeling of it but it didn't work. "Ron?" Carl breathed out, seeing if the boy was still awake or not. 

 

Ron had been wide awake, he couldn't sleep with Carl in the same bed to him, it would take some getting used to. "Yeah?" He whispered in reply. 

 

"Today, that kiss...." 

 

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want too. It was stupid." Ron shook his head against the pillow. He wanted to forget about it as much as Carl wanted to. "Goodnight Carl." 

 

"Night." 

+++

When Ron first opened his eyes he realized that he was face to face with Carl, their noses just barely touching, Carl's eyes were still closed lightly, still fast asleep. Ron watched him for a bit, examined his face and every little scar. His bandages were starting to slip off, should he wake him and tell him or leave him be?Just then Carl stirred and moved his arm over Ron's body, pulling him into his chest and holding him tightly. "Uhm Carl?" Ron whispered into the boys shirt, he gulped. "Carl." Ron said louder. 

 

Carl woke up blurry eyed and annoyed that he had been woken up, but then he realized that he was practically forcing Ron against him. Carl let go of Ron and jumped out of the bed. "Sorry, I'm used to sleeping with Judith." Carl said, his face red in embarrassment.

 

"It's fine." Ron chuckled. "We need to get up anyways, we have to search Alexandria today, best we get a good start on the day." 

 

Ron and Carl rolled off the bed, not looking at each other as they changed, they cleaned the room and packed a book bag with a spare change of clothes and what food supplies that they could find. The search group consisted of the two of them, Rick, Daryl, Rosita, Sasha and Aaron, the rest of them were to stay behind and hold up fort in case someone or the walkers came by. 

 

They walk to Alexandria was quiet, the only sounds were the occasional gurgling of walkers and the birds chirping. They weren't that far from Alexandria, two or three miles out, they had walked this far before. Rick was happy to see the real distance now, the short cut through the woods was only about a mile and a half but on the roads it was three or four. 

 

Ron would glance at Carl every now and then, he could still feel the boy's plump lips on his own. He rubbed his lips together, trying to erase the feeling. Carl was still thinking about their conversation from last night, and how Carl woke up to holding onto Ron. God, he was so embarrassed, "I'm used to sleeping with Judith." What a lame excuse. Carl scoffed aloud, getting attention from the whole group. Carl just kept his head down. 

 

Ron nudged him. "You okay?" He asked. 

 

"Fine, just not ready to see Alexandria." He lied. 

 

"Yeah, I know how you feel." Ron said honestly. He spent five years of his life there, surviving and trying to make things work in the new world. He had memories there with his family, memories that he was ready to forget so he could forget the pain. 

 

"A lot happened there." Carl nodded. It was where he met Enid, where he lost his eye, where he saved Ron's life from that Wolf. 

 

They could see the gates from the road, Ron gulped, he could already tell that the main gate was barely hanging from the hinges, when the Saviors came in the last time they busted through the gates, destroying their first defense. "Alright, Ron, Carl and Sasha, I want the three of you to go to the back, try to get in from there but just check the perimeter. Rosita and Aaron and I want you two to go to the front make sure no one is camped out. Daryl and I will go to the watch tower, make our way up there. " 

 

They all nodded and looked at their partners, making their way to their commanded positions. Sasha leading the way for the boys, they stalked their way around the trees, making sure not to make any noise as they moved through the woods and towards the back wall of Alexandria. It was very tense, the last time they were here, Negan had them all lined up again and he killed Eugene, the only reason why they were all able to leave was because of the walker break through.

 

Carl remembered how Ron was right next to Eugene, about to be his next victim but he wasn't and he couldn't help but remember how his heart leaped in his chest and he was able to breath again. He would miss Eugene but he was just glad it wasn't Ron. "Ron can you make it up that tree?" Sasha asked, they were near Alexandria's farthest wall but Sasha didn't want to risk getting any closer. 

 

"Yeah I can do it." Ron nodded and began climbing up the tree. He was good at climbing, when all of it had first started and the walkers were after his family for the first time, Ron had climbed himself and Sam up a tree, his parents killing the walkers below. 

 

Once he got to the top and was able to see over Alexandria's walls he saw that the place looked empty, there were no cars, the doors to all the houses that he could see were open and only a bit of smoke was coming from the random fires that the saviors had set around Alexandria. "It looks clear." He called down, making sure to call quietly, just in case any of them were around. 

 

"You can't see anything?" Carl yelled up. 

 

"The doors to most of the houses are left open, they weren't like that when we left so maybe they cleared the place out but there are still a few hiding places in Alexandria." Ron said as he began climbing down. "I saw Rosita and Aaron scoping it out at the front." He sighed, rubbing the palms of his hands against his jeans to get the sap off. 

 

"Alright, let's find a way in. But keep your eyes open, who knows what they might have left for us."

 

+++

 

There was nothing there, a few walkers, no human life though. They were able to find enough guns for everyone in the group to have, found a lot of ammo that the saviors just passed over and a lot of canned goods. Nothing special but it was enough to get them by. Rick made them search every single house, Ron gathered a few things from every house, items of clothing, some jewelry, random food stored in the house. He did this till his bag was full. 

 

Carl searched the same houses as Ron, separating on the tenth one to cover more ground but they were always just across the street from each other in case something when south. For some reason Carl was worried to be even across the street from Ron, he couldn't see him and that was an issue. Carl didn't know if it was because he still didn't trust him or if he was worried about him, it felt like a mixture of both. He wanted Ron safe but he knew Ron wasn't safe in himself. Ron was as dangerous as a walker, maybe even more. 

 

"You got everything?" Ron yelled from the porch that he was on. 

 

"Yeah." Carl called back and exited the house. "My bags stuffed. I don't think I could fit anything else in there." 

 

"Same here, I got a lot of stuff, found formula powder and bottles for Maggie." Ron said smugly, at least he was helping someone. 

 

"Nice find. I found like two first aid kits and a knife. Lot's more but those are the main two things that we need." Carl pointed out. 

 

"I hope we head to the mansion soon, I'm getting tired. Plus this place... it's eerie now." 

 

They were walking past the place. The place where Lucille took her last victim from their family. Eugene was laying there, head bashed in and blood stained on the concrete. The others were looking at it too, some sighing, Rosita crying a little and other looking sad. "We should go." Carl said. He had seen enough of his family crying lately.


End file.
